Centennial

A hundred years ago today, on June 3, 1915, University of Chicago faculty members met to establish “a society to stimulate the love of the beautiful and to enrich the life of the community through the cultivation of the arts.”

The Renaissance Society’s long history is united by a focus on art of the present moment. Our inception as a non-collecting museum affords an engagement with the continual generation of new ideas, questions, and points of view.

On the occasion of our Centennial, we present a series of exhibitions, events, and a publication that seek to make new meaning of the institution’s past and to imagine possible futures.

All exhibitions and events are free, unless otherwise noted. Visit our website for more details and locations.
 

Exhibitions
Irena Haiduk, Seductive Exacting Realism
September 10–October 8
This new installation explores the dark inverse of Western revolutionary desires and image worlds. One of a two-part project co-presented with the 14th Istanbul Biennial.

Ian Wilson, Discussions
Thursday, October 1 and Sunday, October 4
Wilson hosts two Discussions—unrecorded conversations that have been the artist’s only medium since 1968—on the subject of “The Pure Awareness of the Absolute.”

Wadada Leo Smith, Ankhrasmation: The Language Scores, 1967–2015
October 11–29
This presentation of over 45 works on paper is the first comprehensive exhibition of Smith’s Ankhrasmation scores.

John Knight, Museotypes
October 23–November 29
Commissioned for Knight’s 1983 solo Renaissance Society exhibition, Museotypes was acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago in 1984 and is displayed in their Modern Wing to celebrate the shared history between the two institutions.

Paul McCarthy
November 8–January 24
McCarthy’s first solo exhibition in Chicago features two-dimensional work from his ongoing “White Snow” series, including rarely seen drawings and collages.

Archives 1915–2015
October–December
This multisite exhibition reflects an institution reckoning with the sprawl of history and the plasticity of the ever-evolving present moment.
 

Events
Reading: Peter Wächtler
Tuesday, September 15, 7pm
A new text from the Centennial artist-in-residence

Panel: Ankhrasmation and Improvisation
Saturday, October 24, 4pm
With Hamza Walker, John Corbett, Wadada Leo Smith, and Anthony Davis

Concert: The Golden Quartet
Saturday, October 24, 7pm
With Wadada Leo Smith, Anthony Davis, John Lindberg, and Mike Reed

Concert: Wadada Leo Smith
Sunday, October 25, 3pm
Solo performance

Reading and panel: An Adventure Was Home: Gertrude Stein in Chicago
Wednesday, November 11, 7pm
With Liesl Olson, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Lyn Hejinian, and Patrick Durgin; presented with the Arts Club of Chicago and the Poetry Foundation

Symposium: In Practice
Friday, November 20–Sunday, November 22
A concentrated series of inquiries relevant to the contemporary art institution, its contributors, and its constituencies

Book launch: Centennial, A History of the Renaissance Society
Saturday, November 21, 8pm
A major publication with contributions from Davarian L. Baldwin, Nina Möntmann, Anne Rorimer, Bruce Jenkins, R.H. Quaytman, and others

Talk: The (De)Civilizing Process: Paul McCarthy’s Regressive Routines
Tuesday, December 8, 7pm
With art historian Cary Levine, author of Pay for Your Pleasures: Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy, Raymond Pettibon
 

And more
100th Birthday Bash
Saturday, September 19, 7pm
Wish the Ren a happy hundredth with a night of music, food, and drinks*

Centennial dinner and gala
Saturday, November 7, 7pm
Honoring artists, whose imaginations and ambitions have shaped our history and inspire our future*

#Ren100, a hundred days of archive materials, from our birthday on June 3 to the start of the Centennial program on September 10, on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram

A new visual identity and website, designed by Project Projects, to launch in late summer

*Ticketed event. All proceeds benefit the Renaissance Society.